The Internet, which is a human centered connectivity network where humans generate and consume information, is now evolving to the Internet of Things (IoT) where distributed entities, such as things, exchange and process information without human intervention. The Internet of Everything (IoE), which is a combination of the IoT technology and the Big Data processing technology through connection with a cloud server, has emerged. As technology elements, such as “sensing technology”, “wired/wireless communication and network infrastructure”, “service interface technology”, and “Security technology” have been demanded for IoT implementation, a sensor network, a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, Machine Type Communication (MTC), and so forth have been recently researched.
Such an IoT environment may provide intelligent Internet technology services that create a new value to human life by collecting and analyzing data generated among connected things. IoT may be applied to a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services through convergence and combination between existing Information Technology (IT) and various industrial applications.
User equipment widely used in mobile communication markets generally has a flight mode implemented therein in order to readily interrupt all communication functions in a space where communication is not allowed, for example, in a space of an airplane while taking off or landing. The flight mode can be set by a user on the screen of a smart phone or through a specific physical button, etc. In the flight mode, the user equipment disables transmission and reception functions of all remote and short-range communication. Examples of the remote communication include commercial mobile communication systems, such as Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE)/Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A), and the like, and examples of the short-range communication include commercial mobile communication systems, such as Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), BLUETOOTH, and the like. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a method for setting a flight mode of a smart phone. User equipment 100 has a touch screen 105 on the front surface thereof, and a user inputs desired information by touching the touch screen. The touch screen displays a control screen for starting or stopping several functions, and the control screen includes a flight mode icon 110. The user sets or disables a flight mode by touching the flight mode icon. In addition, the user also displays a screen for setting or disabling the flight mode by clicking a specific physical button implemented in the user equipment. Through various methods in addition to the above-described methods, the existing user equipment interrupts all communication.
In the existing flight mode, the user equipment interrupts all the communication. However, the user may also want to interrupt only some communication rather than all the communication according to situations. For example, there is a case where an incoming call is unacceptable in everyday life. The user is not willing to receive an incoming call in a place that requires silence or when an undesired person makes a call to him or her. In the situation where the user cannot receive the incoming call, a ring tone or vibration for the incoming call is unnecessary. Accordingly, in the situation described above, a communication mode appropriate for the user's situation is required.
A Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) is a smart card inserted into a mobile communication terminal. The UICC stores private information of a mobile communication subscriber, authenticates the subscriber, and creates a traffic security key when the subscriber accesses a mobile communication network, thereby making it possible to stably use the mobile communication.
The UICC is manufactured as a dedicated card for a specific mobile communication service provider according to the corresponding service provider's request and released with previously loaded authentication information, for example a Universal Subscriber Identity module (USIM) application, International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), a K value, and the like, for the network access of the corresponding service provider. Accordingly, the corresponding mobile communication service provider receives delivery of the manufactured UICC to provide it to the subscriber, and thereafter performs the management, such as installation, modification, deletion, and the like, of an application in the UICC using technologies such as Over The Air (OTA), etc. when necessary. The subscriber inserts the UICC into the mobile communication terminal of his or her own to use the network and application services of the corresponding mobile communication service provider, and when replacing the terminal, the subscriber moves the UICC from the existing terminal to a new terminal to use the authentication information, the mobile communication phone numbers, the personal telephone number list, and the like, which are stored in the UICC, in the new terminal as they are.
The standardization group, called European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), defines the physical shape and the logical function of the UICC to maintain the international compatibility thereof. In terms of a form factor that defines a physical phenomenon, from the most widely used mini-SIM to a micro-SIM and a recently used nano-SIM, the size thereof becomes smaller. Although it contributes much to the compactness of a mobile communication terminal, it is expected that a UICC smaller in size than a recently established nano-SIM is difficult to standardize because a user is likely to lose it. Since the terminal requires a space for mounting a detachable slot due to a characteristic of the detachable UICC, further compactness is expected to be difficult.
In order to solve such a problem, a demand for replacing the UICC by embedding a security module performing a similar function to the UICC in a mobile communication terminal when manufacturing the terminal is emerging. Accordingly, an embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) structure, which is a UICC that cannot be detached, is proposed.